An Evening Planned Organized By Sotiris Bafitis For My Wife And Me, Lefteris, Nassos And Nassos' Wife @ NOSTOS A Fine Greek Restaurant In Tyson's Corner , Virginia, Saturday July 25th, 2015 : What Utter Pleasure And Joy We All Shared In Each Other's Company Two Nights Ago!

     We loved it, we spoke of it again tonight first with our son that called from New York city, and then again later when our daughter joined us here at home for dinner that I grilled farm-raised salmon outside on our grill while it gently rained!

     The dinner and the evening at NOSTOS  at 8100 Boone Boulevard, Vienna, VA. 22182 ( 703-760-0690 ) could not have been any better. I took many pictures to show this and will include them here as soon as I am able. We had a chance, my wife and I to discover this incredible restaurant that both our daughter and Tom Sietsema had recommended recently that we go to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Sotiris with the help of both Nassos ( that along with Iason are the partners of OENOS Imports in Washington D.C. specializing in small family estates making excellent traditional Greek wine as well as some ' new ' international styles, too ) and Lefteris that now works at the KELLARI TAVERNA in New York City orchestrated this incredible eye-mouth, tongue, nose, ears, and touch : yes, we used all our senses here over the fantastic array of flavors and colors and textures and tastes of both the food and the wine - both of which were so plentiful that I think either the kitchen staff or Sotiris and Nassos were fortunate to have ' goodie bags ' with enough food for another meal or two this week?!? I do not know.

     I do know that it was painful for me to not be able to eat but one lamb chop at the end, and not to enjoy some more of the crispy Greek fries. The fries worked really well with the lamb chop to release some of the flavors in the last two ' top-flight ' reds that were served to us, one that Lefteris said his restaurant in New York charges $150 or so a bottle I believe?!?

     There was so much food and wine that we could not finish : two carafes of the special reds, another bottle of French NV Brut rose champagne. It was a feast for kings and queens, one that we shared also with the daughter of the owners of the restaurant that were on vacation in Greece on this evening. She graciously came and looked over much of what was happening on a very busy evening indeed where it looked like every seat was taken? My wife even commented to me later that it was full up till 10:30PM? That is a great sign of a great restaurant.

     My wife also commented on how the room we were in was quite beautiful : " A lot of white " , she said " but the one wall was made with stone and the way they were placed and the decorations on that wall really popped " and provided a dazzling view and made a big impression on her. I was facing away from the rest of the diners and so not as easily able to see.

     There was so much for me to see on our round table there in the corner of the restaurant with two beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows that I was pleased as punch with s much visual stimulus that I needed not look any farther than to those seated around, their smiling, animated faces and expressions, and to the liquid golds and velvet reds in our glasses, the sparkle of Greek mineral water and that of the French Laurent Perrier Brut Rose champagne at first. Marvelous.

     Then all the food started to arrive from all the fresh vegetable appetizers with tempura zucchini that was a favorite for my wife and me, to the many seafood dishes, the typical tomato-based deep red seafood soup filled with shrimp and sea scallops, the various forms of lamb, the Greek fries, then the platter of many Greek sweets served to us on one big platter.

     It never ceased, everything just kept coming, and there were many conversations in Greek. Everyone there was Greek I believe? hey all knew one another and were friendly it seemed with one another. Many conversations, debates, too about the food and the origin, the best examples of this or that, or not.

     We discovered that four of those at our table were left-handed? Wow, that is a lot, the other three of us were right-handed. I asked for paper and two pens and I started to draw quick portrait sketches , starting with Lefteris. My wife challenged me to draw with my left hand, so I did! I drew everyone except for you Sotiris as I ran out of paper. Sorry! I will draw you next time.

     I need to talk about the wines that were served that included the MITRAVELAS ESTATE and I believe the ANTONOPOULOS ESTATE, too? here was a dry white from Santorini that reminded me of a flavorful white French Cotes-Du-Rhone? I did not take notes on them all so will get a list of what was served from Sotiris and add that here soon. We did not drink the rose from DIOFILI this time, and the Moschofilero white was not poured either. But the wines were impressive, all of them, and I will soon devote time to them.

     In the meantime enjoy this as it is and stay-tuned for more really soon. Cheers and thanks to all that made this the special - extraordinary meal and evening that , I am sure was a special to everyone else as it was to my wife and I. I was thrilled that Sotiris included my wife in on this wonderful evening, that made it all the more special and enjoyable for me. Cheers all, happy late Monday night with a bright yellow moon outside, more than half of it, too : on a dark sky and a few small clouds, with the sounds of summer between crickets and cicadas raising the bar - the decimal level in the skies outside to levels that would be the highest ever recorded in a restaurant : full gaiety, and the only reason this is acceptable outside is that there are no walls and so the sounds travel and do not stick and annoy as they might inside a restaurant. Cheers!  Anthony TONY Quinn 7/27/2015